An Interesting Mystery

Kevin Hammer has found a postcard showing a very impressive church. It's identified as Our Lady of Consolation, in Carey, and identifies Fr. John G. Mizer as the pastor. The card is of a type that would have been made, say between 1905 and 1915. Not much further, either way. Fr. Mizer was pastor at Carey for twenty-five years, but was pastor at St. John, in Lima, for four years before his death in 1919.
This raises some interesting questions. It obviously was never built at Carey. However, St. John's could well be a radically scaled down version of this design. HERE'S a picture. I don't know when St. John's was built, but it looks like about 1900 to 1940.
One wonders if this could have been meant for Carey, but reworked to build St. John's?

St. Joseph, Tiffin

These show some of the details on the facade. The random effect of the brick and stone is rather different.

Notice the openwork in the corners over the door. There seem to be a couple angels, in relief, up there, too.

The relief over the side door is St. Joseph, holding a flowering staff, one of his symbols.

Photos by Kevin Hammer

Spe Salvi

HERE'S the text of the new encyclical.

Queen of Apostles School, Old South End

SS Peter and Paul, Old South End

St. Christopher, Rocky River

Sure,not quite in the Toledo Diocese, but it was near the store i got my camera at. Thusly, they were the first pictures i really took with my new camera. Just to note....this is a very recently built church. If i remember correctly, 1954 was the year. Something else eh? Here's their website. http://www.stchris.catholicweb.com//

I wonder what that little building is? (attached there with the pointed roof) I didn't have much time to roam around and see.

One of the better choir lofts i've ever seen. I'd love to have a baby grand piano in church to bang on.

I really like what they did with the center pipes. The windows are very modern looking, but also very tastefully done to match the church.

This is a much needed touch to the sanctuary. Otherwise, it would be pretty bland.

SS Peter and Paul, Old South End

Immaculate Conception, Old South End

The former convent, now La Posada.

Former SS Peter and Paul School, Old South End

SS Peter and Paul, Old South End

A nice window like that up where no one can see it.

Immaculate Conception, Old South End

Some details of the doors.

Facing Unpleasantness

Coming from an old-line British background, I was raised to enjoy long distance walking. Today, I planned to walk Downtown, but had to face the fact that my days of walking that far are over. Only made it as far as SS Peter and Paul, where I took this picture of their wonderful mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
A bit less than two years ago, I was able to walk from the area around Danny Thomas Park to the Museum of Art, wander around there for hours, then walk back. A year ago, I could walk Downtown and back easily. Now, I can barely manage half that distance, even with frequent stops. Arthritis and a bad lung will have that effect. Still, it's not an easy thing to accept.

A Curiousity

I notice the oddest things. This waterspout, on the porch of a house along Broadway, in the Old South End, is the same basic design as....

...this one that's about twenty times bigger, at Immaculate Conception.

St. Patrick, Bascom

The photo above shows the altar of the original St. Patrick's Church, several miles outside Bascom. The priest is Fr. T.M. Kolb, who served as pastor from 1894 to 1898. This church stood from 1863 until it was struck by lightning and burned in 1913.

A close-up of Fr. Kolb. Perhaps he is the same Fr. Kolb mentioned by Alex in previous posts about St. Alphonsus in Peru.

This is the stained-glass window of St. Patrick above the entrance doors of the current church.

SS Peter and Paul, Old South End

St. Paul, Norwalk

This detail of St. Paul's, before it was turned into such a mess, shows a very large, and very interesting, framed painting above a door. I wonder what became of it.

Our Lady of Guadalupe. A shrine on Broadway, in the Old South End.

SS Peter and Paul, Old South End

Elsewhere in Ohio

I was informed, yesterday, that plans to build a new cathedral for the Diocese of Steubenville have been sidelined due to controversy. Ostensibly, this is due to the expense. However, it also involves the fact that the project includes plans to consolidate parishes, which seems to be the real reason. No matter how much the cathedral would cost, and it's not all that expensive, continuing the expense of keeping eight parishes open in a city with a total population ( Total, not just Catholic ) of only 19,000 and dropping, is absolute nonsense.
The website for the new cathedral is HERE. The present cathedral is a former parish church they've used since the diocese was started. It's as if the Toledo diocese had continued to use St. Francis de Sales, instead of building our cathedral. Very unfortunate situation.

Interesting Point

Dwight Longenecker has a good post about recent discussions, at the Vatican, on the growing number of Anglicans, including three bishops, who are entering the Church.
He makes the interesting point that the approval of a wider use of the Tridentine Mass is partly to make the Church more receptive to unity in diversity. I agree completely.

Steubenville native, Daniel, Cardinal DiNardo gets his new hat.
(Photo Credit)

St. Paul, Norwalk

The old organ

All pictures from around the turn of the century.

St. Mary, Norwalk

Before and the restoration and today.

SS Peter and Paul, Old South End

From the railroad overpass on Broadway.

St. Patrick, Warehouse District

From the park, in front of the Amtrak station in the Old South End

Good Shepherd, East Toledo

From the Amtrak station in the Old South End.

Immaculate Conception, Old South End

Active Participation

These are just a few of the organizations at St. Stephen's in East Toledo, way back when.

I've always found it curious that almost everyone used to actively participate in the life of just about every parish.

Then someone decided to tell them they weren't actively participating unless they all had some sort of hoop to jump through in a souped-up "liturgy". Most of them were surprised. They thought being at Mass and praying with the priest, volunteering, being involved in organizations, and sacrificing to fund the church, school, etc. constituted active participation. Came as a bit of a shock to be condescended to and told that what they were doing was of no consequence.

Needless to say, the "old-fashioned" ways everyone participated were left to languish, and most people, who weren't interested in pretending to be the central element of the Mass, lost interest in being involved, at all.